Quite a short book by his later standards, set in the 80's (but written in the 70's) Vixen 03 feels very dated in terms of race and gender relations. Pitt's girlfriend is pretty wet, and disappears entirely in the latter part of the book, to the extent that he never even appears to tell her that he's discovered her father was murdered!
Vixen 03 is a plane with a deadly cargo that was lost and forgotten in a Colorado mountain lake. Rediscovered by Pitt (whose character is also still pretty thin at this point), it transpires that some of the weapons are missing, and through a series of unlikely coincidences end up in the middle of a South African race war and an attack on America. Cue another race against time to save the world, amidst lots of explosions!
I didn't particularly like the first half of this book, but it builds to a satisfyingly exciting climax. So - manly men doing manly things. Probably with stubble. Not the best, but it gets better.
This is the first in a new series featuring Alex(andra) Barnaby - and if you like the Stephanie Plum books it's fairly safe to say that you'll like this, as just change the names and it could be one. That's not meant to be a criticism either. If anything, this is even frothier, it's great fun and very easy reading. Alex has flown to Miami to search for her brother Bill, who's disappeared. Together with Sam Hooker (a Nascar race driver who's looking for Bill because he's stolen Sam's boat), her camp friend Jude and dog Brian, and various large and feisty inhabitants of Little Havana it turns into a hunt for sunken gold and a missing warhead - complete with Cuban baddies and all the daft humour you'd expect (my favourite part possibly being the ingenious use of a spice cookie to elicit information from a captured goon...). Can't wait for the next one.
Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.
This cropped up as one of my recommendations on Amazon based on past purchases, so I thought I'd give it a whirl in the post-Christams book token frenzy.
Harry Dresden is a wizard-for-hire (think Harry Potter grown up and gone a bit seedy). He also acts as consultant to the Chicago Police Dept on their more unearthly cases. Hired by a woman to find a missing item - her husband - and also brought in by the CPD on a case of two people having their hearts torn out apparently by magic, Harry also has to contend with a new drug, ThreeEye, sweeping the city and promising to open up psychic abilities in anyone as well as the threat of his mystical parole officer turning up with a big sword at inopportune moments. Add to this being menaced by demons, vampires and giant scorpions, not to mention gangsters, and it's really turning out not to be his week.
The writing could do with a bit of improving, and I'm hoping over the next few books he finds his own voice more, as a lot of this book felt too similar to a lot of other authors. He does, however, have several nice ideas of his own, particularly the potion making (and the spirit in a skull has potential, even if it does smack of being nicked from Trapdoor). It certainly held my attention, and I'll be seeking out the others - which will hopefully be a little stronger in terms of plot and characterisation.
Seeing the film of Sahara was what introduced me to Cussler's books, so I've been curious to read this for a while. Initially it's quite a close match (albeit with a certain amount of filmic re-jigging) but about halfway through they part company pretty much completely and I'm glad I saw the film first, because if I'd read the book I'd have gotten all cross and indignant (see also Rebus).
Anyway, this time out Pitt and co are sent up the Niger to track down the source of a deadly red tide that, if it's allowed to spread unchecked, will result in the oceans failing to produce their 70% of the world's oxygen with everyone thereby suffocating horribly. Parallel to this, a team of scientists from the World Health Organisation are investigating mysterious disease outbreaks amongst the desert villages. Oh, and tourists are getting eaten in the process.
The book is a whole lot darker than the film, in a lot of ways. Out to stop anyone discovering the truth of what's behind it all are a French industrialist and the military dictator of Mali - throw into the mix a slave-labour gold mine in the desert full of political prisoners, a desperate escape across hundreds of miles of desert, attack by apparently the entire forces of the Malian army and you've got a rather daft, occasionally very horrid adventure that's very readable. Oh, and what's pretty much nothing but a postscript involving a Confederate Army Ironclad ship discovered in the desert (which is something used to much greater effect in the film I think, but that's probably heresy).
The one thing that jars about these books is the fact that Cussler himself keeps turning up in them to save our heroes from certain death just in the nick of time or pass on some form of vital information or assistance. So far, three for three. It really destroys the suspension of disbelief and reminds you that what you're reading is made up. If for no other reason that they don't remember meeting him from the others, just that he looks 'vaguely familiar'. Having said that, it won't stop me reading them, it's great to have discovered a whole new (and extensive) series to read.
